Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages

This is a brilliant and useful selection of classic poetry and prose that owes nothing to tokenism - which can be a shock to some readers these days. All this fuss over the title neatly ignores the ironic engine it engages - the kind of people that react by thinking it is pompous and will only be liked by 'yuppies' are the very kind of people that are concerned with being seen as pompous and yuppy-ish. Bloom may be sometimes heavy-handed in his critique of modern life, but he can also be subtle. If Bloom has any role to play in 'The Emperor's New Clothes' it is as the child pointing at the nakedness he sees all around him.

Harold Bloom is not only a leading literary critic and analyst; he is also a reader almost beyond measure. He has read more than even an avid reader would find possible in a couple of lifetimes. This makes it very easy for us to find things of value to learn from his writing and thinking about literature. At least it does for me. Bloom has such passion and love for prose and poetry that it infects me and I find his bold pronouncements an invitation to question and my own conclusion and preconceptions. Of course, Bloom wouldn't expect you to agree with him simply because he said it. He would invite challenge and argument, but be prepared in your challenges!This is a collection of forty-one stories and eighty-three poems that Bloom particularly loves and considers wonderful foundational reading. As he says, he does not believe in children's literature and these pieces wouldn't be found in most contemporary public primary school readings. But the poems are mostly short enough that a younger reader could go over them enough times to begin possessing them by heart in your memory. This is not a process of rote memorization, but of taking a kind of ownership through bonding with the material.What a great body of material Prof. Bloom has given us here. It is a bound series or riches offered as a gift for us to return to again and again and draw from throughout our life.Thanks, Prof. Bloom!

This wonderful anthology reminds me of a bookshelf in the house where I grew up. Every children's book we ever had eventually went onto that shelf, along with old anthology sets and even college literature textbooks that I assume had belonged to my parents. The children browsed at large, and there were always old favorites and new acquaintances to find.This book is like that. Its arrangement (by the seasons of the year) might frustrate a linear mind but is nice for browsing. It contains selections for the quite young (my 3-year-old enjoyed Lear's "The Jumblies" and Kipling's "The Elephant's Child") as well as for rather precocious pre-teens (Hardy's "the Three Strangers" comes to mind). This makes the book worth having in hardback. Themes of love and death, contemplation and fancy, adventure and mystery are sounded by many of the most capable and sensitive authors of the West. The writing is excellent throughout, and there's a refreshing absence of condescension and pedantry.As our shelf did, Bloom's book holds mostly stories and poems of the Western tradition. That limitation can be criticized, but it would be a mistake, in my view, to let that be a reason for not giving a child this book. You can still buy Ananzi stories or Chinese literature or whatever other books you want. And they'll fit right next to it on the shelf.

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE SHOULD NOT BE THE dumbed-down fare often offered, but splendid writing that appeals to intelligence - and lasts through adulthood. So says Harold Bloom, distinguished author of How to Read and Why. To which, aye aye says I. It is why I have an aversion to the Beatrix Potter stories. I dislike Potter's crude writing (Graham Greene, no less, pointed out that she can barely write a proper sentence, and as for paragraphing, pphew!) How much better to put the well-written poem, fable or story in front of your child - no matter its or the child's age.Now Bloom puts forth a treasure trove that would make even a pirate sit up and take notice. Culled from several centuries of writers, not all of whom had children in mind when they took quill to parchment, but rather, -and here is Bloom's point - an intelligent audience. Many of the short entries here come from the nineteenth century. For good reason. It is easy to spot where there is much to be learned by the modern reader from these older tales and poems. For instance, how about the following (from Alice in Wonderland, or is it Alice Through The Looking Glass?) for instilling a good feeling of self-worth in a young girl? "Hold your tongue," said the Queen turning purple."I won't!" said Alice"Off with her head!" the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved."Who cares for you?" said Alice. She had grown to her full size by this time.)"You're nothing but a pack of cards!"More than once in a lifetime, Bloom points out, every reader will grow to full size by crying out, to the right audience "Who cares for you? You're nothing but a pack of cards!"Even the youngest child responds to this;'The Owl and the Pussy- cat went to seaIn a beautiful pea-green boat. . . ."Bloom omits the obscure, and the backbreaker, but includes what is illuminating, entertaining, and often humorous. There are thrills too. Sherlock Holmes makes a memorable appearance, and Guy de Maupassant's astonishing - and rarely published - story The Horla jumps off the page like a rediscovered Grimm's Faery Tale. This is a book for your favourite child - and that could be you.